Brown v. New York Life Ins. Co.

22 F. Supp. 82, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2362
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. South Carolina
DecidedFebruary 8, 1938
Docket2642
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 22 F. Supp. 82 (Brown v. New York Life Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. New York Life Ins. Co., 22 F. Supp. 82, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2362 (southcarolinawd 1938).

Opinion

WYCHE, District Judge.

This is an action by the plaintiff against the defendant New York Life Insurance Company for damages claimed to have resulted in an alleged breach of three insurance contracts issued upon the life of Robert N. Brown. Because he claimed some interest, J. J. Wheeler, Agent, was made a party defendant so that he might set up any rights he might have; but it is alleged by plaintiff that whatever interest he had, it was not superior to that claimed by her in the complaint. He did not appear or answer and is in default.

. The evidence in the case about which there is little /dispute is substantially as follows: The defendant insurance company in July, 1919, issued two contracts of insurance insuring the life of Robert N. Brown, one for $2,000, and the other for $5,000; and in October, 1921, issued another policy .insuring his life for $10,-000." On November 28, 1921, Brown assigned or pledged his $10,000 contract of insurance to the Farmers Bank of Saluda, and on the 23d day of March, 1922, he pledged or assigned his other two policies to the Bank of Saluda. These assignments were in writing, and in the following form:

“For Value Received, -, being of legal age, hereby assign and transfer unto - of - the Policy of Insurance known as No. - issued by the New York Life Insurance Company upon the life o^ Robert N. Brown, of Saluda Co. S. C. and all dividend, benefit and advantage to be had or derived therefrom, subject to the conditions of the said Policy, and the Rules and Regulations of the Conjpany, and to any indebtedness to the New York Life Insurance Company against said Policy -.
“Witness my hand and seal, this-day of -, nineteen hundred -.”

At the time these assignments were executed and delivered, Brown was indebted *85 to each bank in large amounts. The consideration named in the assignments is “For Value Received.” The only testimony as to the real consideration was that for the plaintiff that the assignments were collateral and made to secure Brown’s indebtedness to the banks. There is no evidence that the banks paid Brown any amount directly or indirectly for the assignments, nor was his indebtedness to the banks reduced thereby.

The two banks while holding the assignments, subsequently on June 30, 1927, merged into one corporation which was thereafter known as the Farmers Bank of Saluda, and under this corporate name it came into possession and ownership of the assignments of the three policies.

The insurance company received all premiums on the policies as they became due until the fall of 1931. Most of the premiums were paid by the banks, and, according to plaintiff’s witnesses, charged to Brown’s account at the bank, but, according to one witness for defendant, to expense because, he said, it was useless to charge them to Brown. Some fraction of the premiums was paid by earned dividends, for the insured elected to have the dividends applied toward payment of the premittms. After merger the bank applied to have these dividends paid to the bank alone.

The insurance company at first contended in its letters to the bank that ordinarily banks are not allowed to buy and sell life insurance policies, and that where a bank is acquiring an interest under a policy it is generally a collateral interest, and if a policy is assigned as collateral security the title of the assignee is not absolute even though the assignment may be absolute on its face, and that the assignee of a policy held by him as collateral is bound to hold the policy as collateral and is prohibited by law from doing anything whatever with the policy except to hold it as collateral in accordance with the terms and purpose of the assignment, and if the policies were assigned to, them as collateral security, then, of course, it would be required to deal jointly with the bank and the insured in making any dividend payments, and suggested in one of the letters “if the insured desires to vest in the assignee the right to surrender these policies for the •cash surrender value at any time when the same becomes available, or to sell these policies at public or private sale without notice to him, he should then assign these policies in favor of the Farmers Bank of Saluda, S. C. on the enclosed forms in accordance with the notice printed thereon, then return the same to ps for record.” These forms were never executed.

The bank contended that the assignments were absolute.

Finally, however, the insurance company decided that “in view of the statements made by the bank” that it would “pay to the bank alone dividends as they become due,” and it appears that they were thereafter so paid without the knowledge or consent of the insured.

Later, in June, 1931, the insurance company allowed the bank to exercise the loan value provisions of the policies and made loans to the bank without the knowledge or consent of the insured. The amounts received from these loans were applied to Brown’s indebtedness to the bank. There was a default in the payment of the premiums on the policies in September, 1931.

The Farmers Bank of Saluda, subsequent to securing the policy loans from the insurance company in October, 1931, became insolvent, and its assets, including the notes of Robert N. Brown, and the three assignments of tire insurance policies, passed into the hands of a receiver. The receiver sued Brown and reduced bis indebtedness to judgment which was rendered on December 13, 1932, for the sum of $14,-777.25, without foreclosure or otherwise changing the status of the assignments of the insurance policies. Thereafter, the interest of the bank in the judgment, and the assignments of the policies, along with oilier assets of the closed bank, were sold to J. J. Wheeler, Agent.

Brown died intestate August 13, 1934, and his widow, the plaintiff Mrs. Sallie Brown, was thereafter appointed and qualified as administratrix of his estate. Mrs. Brown as administratrix made demand upon the insurance company for payment of such sum as might be due to her under the policies. The company denied liability on the ground that upon default in payment of premiums in 1931, the company, under the automatic provisions of the policies, used the accumulated values, less the outstanding policy loans, to purchase extended insurance, and that the term of the extension on each policy had expired before the death of the insured. The company on May 15, 1933, undertook to terminate and cancel the insurance contracts on this *86 ground. But for the policy loans made by the insurance company to the bank the term of the extension on each policy would have kept it in force for the full amounts far beyond the date of the insured’s death.

The insurance policies are payable to executors, administrators, and assigns of the insured, and other pertinent provisions are as follows:

“The Insured may, without the consent of the beneficiary, receive every benefit, exe'rcise every right and enjoy every privilege conferred upon ■ the Insured by this Policy.”

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Related

Rumsey Mfg. Corp. v. U. S. Hoffman Machinery Corp.
88 F. Supp. 394 (W.D. New York, 1949)
New York Life Ins. v. Brown
99 F.2d 199 (Fourth Circuit, 1938)
Glens Falls Indemnity Co. v. Palmetto Bank
23 F. Supp. 844 (W.D. South Carolina, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 F. Supp. 82, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-new-york-life-ins-co-southcarolinawd-1938.